Selling is a bitch. It’s not taught anywhere, and yet it may be one of the single most important traits that someone can learn. And no… I don’t mean professional traits, I mean traits.
Selling is essentially the art of making someone do something. Persuasion. Daily, you need to persuade people to help you, date you, work with you, buy stuff from you, etc. It’s pretty wild that there are no real classes focused on the subject.
I’m no expert in the art. But I’m learning. From what I have discovered there are two types of selling: benefit selling and provocative selling. Let’s analyze the differences with a car salesman.
Imagine you pull up to a dealership in a slightly aging sports car, jump out with a kid and a salesperson swings by. If they were benefit selling they may ask you, “Hey what are you looking for…?”. You may then start to explain that you are either:
- Looking for a more practical car since you now have a family.
- Looking for a faster whip because your old piece of metal is shit and slowing you down.
This salesperson is building a rapport with you, gaining your trust slowly as you walk through different options and come up with the best one. You may or may not buy a car that day – but you walk away with a great idea of what the best options for a car are.
Now let’s restart the scenario. The salesperson is now “provocative selling” and jumps directly to with “Hey! You look like you could use some more seats in that car. Check out this sporty station wagon”. The updated breakdown:
- You were looking looking for a more practical car. This salesperson knows what they are talking about! And they had an eye for detail that you still may want something fast.
- I wanted a faster car. Why am I communicating with this person? They don’t know anything about me.
This salesperson is diving right in and trying to get to your need. They make assumptions, run with them, and try to push you to the ultimate decision fastest. There’s a significantly higher chance that you, as the car buyer, either buy the car outright on that day or walk away never to buy the car.
These two styles break into different levels of extremes but the benefits of both overarching styles are pretty clear:
Benefit selling gives you a long term ally. The person you were working with will be a contact of which you can rely on. After all – you were getting to know the person. You cared. You showed an interest in their needs.Provocative selling allows you to weed people out quickly. Who was really interested in buying a car vs just checking them out? You can also close deals quicker because you are able to show your expertise.
What I really want to learn is how to use the benefits of both styles and what the actions should be to activate each one.